Nomination Deadline: Feb 9th
We are looking for nominees for the OTTY - Our Town Thanks You Awards,
our annual salute to Upper East Side heroes. Tell us what your nominee does
for the Upper East Side and why he or she deserves an OTTY.
Visit: www.ourtownny.com

tapped in

Notes from the Neighborhood
Compiled by Megan Bungeroth

Vudu Lounge Closed

Bar Gets
a Sports Fan Facelift
When the Giants face off against the
Patriots this Sunday for a Super Bowl
rematch, Mayor Michael Bloomberg
can rest easy knowing he’s scrubbed as
many references to the New England
team as possible from the city. Just
as they did four years ago, the mayor’s office is targeting establishments
whose names might falsely belie an
allegiance to the enemy (we’re guessing anything with the words patriots,
Boston or Gisele Bundchen) and asking them to make a temporary moniker
switch in support of the home team.
On the Upper East Side, Brady’s Bar,
on Second Avenue near 82nd Street,
will again take up a new mantle for the
weekend: Manning’s. The quarterback
switch is fully supported by owner Dan
Brady, a diehard Big Blue fan. He said

2

•

O UR TOW N

•

F ebruary 2, 2012

Bill to Protect Jobs
of P regnant Women
State Sen. Liz Krueger is sponsoring a bill that would require employers to make “reasonable accommodations” for pregnant women on the job.
Currently, employers are barred from
discriminating against pregnant women
and must make accommodations for disabled workers. Because pregnancy is
not considered a disability, however, employers are
not required to make any
concessions for pregnant
woman and can legally fire
them for, say, taking too
many bathroom breaks or
requesting to sit. Krueger’s
bill, which is being introduced in the assembly
by upstate Democratic
Assembly Member Aileen
Gunther, would close that legal gap.
The bill’s language states that employers must take action to “allow pregnant
women to perform in a reasonable manner the activities involved in the job or
occupation sought or held and include,
but are not limited to, provision of an
accessible worksite, acquisition or modification of equipment, support services
for persons with impaired hearing or
vision, job restructuring and modified
work schedules; provided, however, that
such actions do not impose an undue
hardship on the business, program or
enterprise of the entity from which
action is requested.”
Dina Bakst, founder and president of
A Better Balance: The Work and Family
Legal Center, wrote on Tuesday’s New
York Times op-ed page that the law is a
“public health necessity” and called it a
necessary measure to ensure the safety
of pregnant women who may not ask
for accommodations if they fear being
fired.

New Show Parodies
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a popular
home base for fictional characters, and
now ABC has commissioned a new show
set in the ritzy section—this time with a

andrew schwartz

According to the 19th Precinct, the
infamous Vudu Lounge on First Avenue
between 77th and 78th streets is closing its doors for good and handed over
its liquor license to the State Liquor
Authority this week. The nightclub,
which was popular with young partiers
and reviled by neighborhood residents,
has been plagued with problems over
the past few years. The NYPD closed
them down temporarily last May, but
the club came back and
was holding mandatory
quarterly meetings with
residents to address their
concerns over the noise
and late-night loitering.
“I was relieved to hear
Vudu Lounge has finally
closed its doors,” said
State Sen. Liz Krueger,
who has worked with
other local officials to
quell the problems coming from the establishment. “With numerous
State Liquor Authority investigations
and multiple counts of violent behavior and underage drinking to its name,
Vudu Lounge simply didn’t belong in our
neighborhood.”
Calls to manager Michael Stein for
comment were not returned, but a source
said that the owners were hoping to find a
more amenable location downtown.

NO SKatES
NECESSaRy

that the mayor should be in attendance
for the renaming ceremony on Friday
afternoon; check their website bradysbar.com for updates and the exact
time.

During a sled hockey clinic, 10-year-old Joanna Nieh gets some one-on-one instruction from a member of the Wheelchair Sports Federation at Citi Pond in Bryant
Park. Sled hockey, which follows the same rules as ice hockey, is a winter Paralympic sport.

supernatural twist. The show, 666 Park
Avenue, is based on a book series by
Gabriella Pierce and revolves around a
Midwestern couple who comes to live at
and manage the eponymous address and
soon discovers that the tenants have all
made deals with the devil in order to
attain their fantastic lives and have their
darkest desires fulfilled.
Produced by the team that delivered
Gossip Girl and The Vampire Diaries,
the show seems to be taking advantage
of the most popular aspects of both
of those successes. Something tells us
that it won’t be portraying Upper East
Siders in the best light, but then again,
neither does Gossip Girl, and that’s
been a hit.

Musical Open House
for Kids
The 92nd Street Y is holding a free
open house for its School of Music on
Sunday, Feb. 5 from 1–4 p.m. Children
ages 3 to 9 can take mini classes in the
different styles offered and parents
can meet instructors and discuss the
methodologies of each class. Offerings
include Delcroze, a program for toddlers that helps them develop rhythmic
skills through musical interpretation
of children’s stories, courses in using

GarageBand to record original music
and introductory violin instruction for
little ones. At 1395 Lexington Ave. Visit
92Y.org for more information.

Local Doorman and
Driver Made Richer
The New York Post reported earlier this week that millionaire music
exec and high stakes poker player
Alan Meltzer, who died at 67 this
past Halloween, left a huge chunk of
change in his will to his Park Avenue
doorman and personal chauffeur.
Meltzer was divorced and had no children, and both of his former employees, who received about $1 million and
$500,000 respectively, told the Post
that their boss was always kind and
generous to them.

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O u r T o w n N Y. c o m

January 19, 2012

•

OUR TOWN

•

3

Please join us for our February and March Meetings of

the 19th Pct Community Council
Located at The 19th Precinct, 3rd FL - 153 East 67th St

crime watch

Crime Watch

Monday, February 6th
7:00 PM

Speaker:
Patricia O’Connor, Deputy Bureau Chief of
the Cyber Crime and Identity Theft Bureau,
of the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office.

Monday March 5th
7:00 PM

Speaker:
Sergeant James Alexander of The
Traffic Safety Unit of the 19th Precinct.
Refreshments courtesy of Butterfield Market
To be added to our email list please email us at:
The19PCTCouncil@aol.com

Late Sunday night, a man was escorted
out of an Upper East Side bar by what he
said were the bar’s employees. When he
got outside, an unknown man headbutted
him, causing a bloody nose. The owner
of the bar told police that the headbutter was not one of his employees; it is
unclear who, exactly, the mysterious
assailant was.

Gloved Robbery Pattern

Thief Wants Clear Skin

Police have identified a pattern of
crimes in which one or two perpetrators, both described as middle-aged black
men, enter a commercial establishment
and demand money or goods at gunpoint
while wearing latex gloves. In one incident on the Upper East Side, a lone man
entered a drugstore and forced the pharmacist to hand over oxycontin and oxycodone. In other occurrences, the man,
once with an accomplice, according to
police, entered Metro PCS locations and
demanded cash.

Early in the morning on Monday, Jan.
30, employees at a local chain drugstore
spied a man, whom they said has stolen
from their location previously, stuffing
skin care products into his pockets. The
man attempted to leave the store, setting
off the security alarms but continuing to
walk out. Employees followed him and
questioned him, but the man picked up
his pace. The intrepid employees called
911 and trailed the suspect until police
caught up with him. Upon questioning,
he admitted that he did not pay for the
items. Police said the total haul was
worth $112.70 and included Eucerin
Calming Crème, Aveeno foaming lotion
cleanser and Neutrogena body wash.

Front Door Thief
In three separate incidences on
the Upper East Side over the past two
months, an unknown suspect broke into
commercial establishments by cutting
the front gate and breaking the glass on
the front doors. He then made off with
cash from the registers.

Last Saturday and Sunday, police
believe the same perpetrator committed the same crime at almost the same
•

O UR TOW N

•

F ebruary 2, 2012

Assault by Head

Police report that at 2 a.m. on Tuesday,
Jan. 31, a white SUV was traveling northbound on the FDR Drive near East 84th
Street when it struck a vehicle, sending
it into two lanes of traffic and hitting a
third and fourth vehicle in a nasty pileup.
One of the passengers in a 2001 Toyota,
a 31-year-old man whom police did not
identify, was taken to the hospital and
pronounced dead there. The driver of the
SUV fled the scene, and police said that
the investigation is ongoing.

Two-Wheeled Phone Snatch
4

location two days in a row. A man on a
bike rode up behind his victims, one on
First Avenue near East 91st Street and
one on East 92nd Street, and grabbed
their iPhones before cycling away out
of sight.

Precinct Community
Council Meeting

The 19th Precinct Community Council
will hold its monthly meeting Monday,
Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. on the third floor of the station house, 153 E. 67th St. Refreshments
will be served and Patricia O’Connor,
deputy bureau chief of the cyber crime
and identity theft unit, will be the guest
speaker. All are welcome.
N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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A Fishy Business
City announces
bid for Asphalt
Green garbage
plant as
Maloney and
reps cry foul
By Sean Creamer

6

•

O UR TOW N

•

F ebruary 2, 2012

andrew schwartz

A

lthough garbage collection is
a dirty job, the old saying goes
that someone has to do it. On
that note, garbage must also
go somewhere. That “somewhere” may
soon be the old Marine Transfer Station
(MTS) at East 91st Street and York
Avenue, though a Hail Mary pass from
Rep. Carolyn Maloney and the efforts of
some tenacious residents might derail
the plan before it gets started.
Last week, the city announced that
it was hosting a bid to construct and
reopen the MTS, despite the fact that
the Army Corp of Engineers is still considering a permit request and mitigation
plan by the New York City Department
of Sanitation over building the proposed
station.
The Army Corp of Engineers has to
approve changes to navigable waterways,
a process that is notoriously slow. In
the application for the project, Maloney
claimed the city provided outdated information, including environmental samples
that didn’t show the presence of fish in
the area, only larvae.
“Local fishermen and the State
Department
of
Environmental
Conservation both say that the area
around the proposed MTS is teeming
with fish—including Atlantic striped
bass—and is one of the best fishing spots
around,” Maloney said.
She asked the National Marine
Fisheries Service (NMFS) to look into
reports that the area around the MTS is

The old Marine Transfer Station near Asphalt Green.
a striped bass habitat. While the NMFS
doesn’t take an up or down vote on Army
Corp issues, it does advise them.
“Under the Magnuson-Stevens Act,
they are required to study the impact of
the MTS on the essential fish habitats
in the East River in consultation with
the National Marine Fisheries Service,”
Maloney said.
The striped bass is protected under
federal law. The East River was traditionally a home to the fish, but decades
of pollution caused them to disappear.
As the river has been cleaned up over
the last 30 years, an increasing amount
of marine life has returned to the Upper
East Side.
The city has yet to provide the updated information to the Army Corp of
Engineers. Until it does, several local representatives think it’s too soon for them
to be calling for proposals to build the
MTS. The city’s new proposal calls for a
greatly expanded footprint on the structure that is already there, which would
expand over the East River.
In response to the city’s announcement

of the proposal for the MTS, Maloney
and several Upper East Side representatives, including State Sen. Liz Krueger
and Assembly Member Micah Kellner,
came together to spell out why the station would have a negative impact on the
community and East River.
“The city needs a permit from the Army
Corps of Engineers to build over the East
River. They don’t have it. And, in our
view, they shouldn’t get it. It is clear that
this project is an environmental disaster
and that it will exert a negative impact on
essential fish habitats in the East River,”
Maloney said at the event.
“Our community has been clear in our
opposition to the construction of this
facility, but now residents of the East
Side have reason to be doubly outraged,”
said Krueger. “In soliciting bids before
completing a host of other necessary
steps, the city government has attempted to jump the gun and short-circuit its
responsibility to safeguard the East River
environment and our communities.”
Another reason Maloney said the MTS
shouldn’t be built in the neighborhood is

that it is in the middle of what the city has
designated as a “Hurricane Evacuation
Zone A,” which is under the greatest risk
of flooding from a storm surge.
“In the case of a flood, the MTS would
flood not only into the East River but into
the community as well,” she said.
The original station that stands on
the location was built in the 1960s and
was closed in the early 1990s. When
it was built, it was situated next to a
factory that produced asphalt and the
water in the East River was not as clean
as it is today. Since then, the neighborhood surrounding the proposed site
has flourished. Long gone is the factory
that gave Asphalt Green Park its name.
Located nearby now are two schools,
two public housing developments and a
senior center that have popped up in the
neighborhood.
The city has claimed in the past that
the plan to reopen the MTS is part of an
effort to redress the disproportionate
number of garbage transfer stations in
low-income communities.
continued on page 12
N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

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O u r T o w n N Y. c o m

January 19, 2012

•

1/13/12 1:07 PM

OUR TOWN

•

7

news

Clean Tests, Dirty Looks
Residents question MTA’s air quality tests on 2nd Avenue
noting that they have initiated dust control measures and better smoke ventilation and worked to seal off as much
of the dust as possible. “I think we’ve
improved the dust and fume situation
considerably.”
Over 100 people attended the meeting
to listen to the report’s findings laid out
in detail and voice their concerns over its
conclusions. The study was conducted
by consulting firm Parsons Brinckerhoff,
and it tracked pollutants from 10 monitoring sites over a 28-day period, collecting 3.3 million points of data. Guido
Schattanek, the senior environmental
engineer who wrote the study, was on
hand to go point by point through the
data.
The study focused on particulate
matter of two sizes; PM10, which means
equal to or smaller than 10 microns,
and PM2.5, equal to or smaller than 2.5
microns. It also tracked a number of
pollutants, including carbon monoxide,
sulfur dioxide, ammonia and hydrogen
sulfide.

The results of the study surprised some residents. According
to the findings, which were
verified by the Environmental
Protection Agency, none of the
pollutants registered at levels that
would be harmful to residents’
health.
Assembly Member Dan Quart,
whose district encompasses the
construction, let the community
know on Wednesday night that he
would be introducing a bill that
would require more frequent and
regulated testing of the air around
the blasting sites.
“My concern is that you’re
looking at a 28-day period of a
construction project that’s been
going on for three years,” Quart
2nd Avenue construction.
said.
“There is no semi-annual or
annual means to check the air quality.
The bill would require the state
You wouldn’t accept saying that you only Department
of
Environmental
come in and inspect an air shaft every Conservation to conduct regular studies
continued on page 12
three or four years,” he said.
andrew schwartz

By Megan Bungeroth
Those who live in the vicinity of the
Second Avenue Subway construction
have been concerned for several years
about the potential effects that the constant blasting and construction may have
on residents’ health.
A few weeks ago, MTA Capital
Construction released the results of an
air quality study that monitored construction activity between East 69th and East
87th streets along Second Avenue. While
the report essentially concludes that
there is not much to be worried about,
local residents aren’t necessarily convinced, and many expressed their skepticism at Community Board 8’s Second
Avenue Subway task force meeting last
Wednesday night.
MTA Capital Construction president
Michael Horodniceanu told residents at
the meeting that they have been working
to improve conditions since before the
study came out.
“We listened to your concerns about
smoke and fumes,” Horodniceanu said,

The Original Teachings of

OPEN THINKING | ON A NEW SCHOOL OF THOUGHT

Theosophy

No. 2 IN A SERIES

CAN CHILDREN LEARN LANGUAGE
LIKE MUSIC?

as recorded by H.P. Blavatsky & William Q. Judge
Special Meeting

Wednesday, March 21st at 7:30p.m.
“A Great Theosophist -- William Q. Judge”
All are welcome to this special meeting

By Yongling Lu
Curriculum Specialist, Avenues

There is a tide in the affairs of men which, taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune, it is said - which is merely an
expression and recognition of the law of recurrent impression. For the opportunities of each life come from the past;
each life as it is has been produced by the life or lives preceding, and aspirations are recurrent ideas of the past.

In our global society, becoming fluent in a foreign language is a huge advantage for any
child. Fortunately, learning language today doesn’t have to be an endless exercise in verb
conjugation and translation. It helps to think of language as music, with its distinctive rhythm
and melody. The most effective way to teach a language is to help students learn to “sing
the music” of a new language — through stories, games and theatrical performances.
Read the rest of Yongling Lu’s article about learning language at www.avenues.org/ylu.
You’ll also find articles, video interviews and details on parent information events hosted by
the leadership team of Avenues: The World School.
Yongling Lu is the curriculum specialist in the Mandarin Chinese program at Avenues.
Avenues is opening fall 2012 in Chelsea. It will be the first of 20 campuses in major cities,
educating children ages three to 18 with a global perspective.

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cycle - to make every possible effort in the direction of his
purpose. For the time is ripe, and the time will pass again
just as surely as the Sun moves northward and then south
again and in that time of rising tide, we must have acquired
the stamina - the power of concentrated effort which will
hold us through the receding tide and give us a better
standing place when the tide again rises.
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• O UR TOW N • F ebruary

2, 2012

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Local Pols Knock Plan for State Election Districts
By Megan Bungeroth
It happens once a decade and it’s
never an easy process. In accordance
with the state Constitution, the state
Legislature is currently in the process
of creating new district lines for the
Assembly, state Senate and congressional
representatives.
The
Legislative
Task
Force
on
Demographic
Research
and
Reapportionment (LATFOR) has just
released a set of maps outlining the
proposed new districts for the state
Legislature, and local elected officials are
up in arms over what they call a seriously
partisan and severely flawed process that
heavily favors Republicans, who hold a
slim majority in the senate.
LATFOR consists of six members, four
legislators and two nonlegislators who are
appointed by the temporary president of
the Senate, the speaker of the Assembly
and the minority leaders of the Senate
and Assembly. It uses Census data from
2010 to redraw lines in order to reflect
population shifts. While the Assembly
must maintain 150 districts, according to
the state’s Constitution, the number of
senators may shift. LATFOR has proposed

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adding a 63rd Senate seat in upstate New
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five different counties and has served as
a flashpoint of criticism from Democrats
and good government groups who call the
district a bad case of gerrymandering an
extraneous Republican-leaning district in
order to preserve their majority.

“The maps that came out are
typical and reflect no sense
of the push for a nonpartisan
reform of redistricting,”
said Richard Emory.
“The maps that came out are typical and
reflect no sense of the push for a nonpartisan reform of redistricting,” said Richard
Emory, an attorney who was involved in
litigation over the last set of redistricting
lines in 2003-2004. “They are purely political. They are obviously an attempt of what
we call the unholy alliance of the Assembly
and the state Senate by using the majority
of each body to favor the majority.”
The proposed districts, especially

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•

OUR TOW N

•

F ebruary 2, 2012

Assembly, I have been a supportive of
independent redistricting,” said Upper
East Side Assembly Member Micah
Kellner. “Any time an elected official has
the ability to pick his votes, that’s a subversion of democracy.”
Kellner said that even though his own
district would not change much under the
current proposal, he supports the governor’s veto promise and hopes there will
be major reform before they are brought
for a vote by the Legislature.
“Some of these districts are connected
by a highway, connected by a shoreline.
They are purposefully connecting some
districts while avoiding others,” Kellner
said. “I think the public realizes the ridiculousness of this.”
Public hearings are scheduled to continue around the state through Feb. 16. Many
expect LATFOR to release new maps based
on feedback some time after that, at which
point the Legislature will have to approve
them before they go to the governor.
Senate Democrats have already filed a
lawsuit challenging the constitutionality
of the 63rd Senate seat, and other lawsuits may surface before the hearings are
concluded.

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for the Senate, have been criticized by
Democrats as stringing together certain
communities by tenuous geographical
connections and separating others that
should be included in the same district.
“I think that this is not a proposed
actual redistricting plan, it’s a political
scheme that the Republicans actually put
out knowing that everyone would scream,
‘Are you kidding, is this a joke?’” said State
Sen. Liz Krueger, whose district would
shift considerably and encompass parts
of the west side of Manhattan and a small
sliver of eastern Midtown if the current
maps are approved. “They are likely to
already have plan B in a back pocket, and
they will come out with plan B after these
nine hearings that they’ve agreed to have.”
Emory said they’re overpopulating and
packing downstate Democratic districts
in order to create more Republican seats.
“That’s why the shapes are so peculiar,
because they’re picking voters instead of
voters picking representatives,” he said.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo has vowed to veto
the lines unless they are created by an independent panel. If he does, it’s likely that the
case would have to go through the courts.
“Since the first day I came to the

The baby boomers are coming! 76 million of them are
starting to edge towards their retirement. What are
boomers doing as they age? Savvy individuals, even by
age 55, are planning for their “next act.” For boomers,
older adults, and those on the edge of retirement, continuing education has become very popular. The mind
is refreshed, social connections are invigorated, and
interests, new and old, are stimulated. Volunteering
and political advocacy have also become meaningful
sources of energy for those looking to make a difference in society.
Find out about all these possibilities and more. On
February 12, adults over age 55 are invited to explore
educational and cultural programs at John Jay College
at the free Open House of “Sundays at JASA,” from
10:00 AM to 2:00 PM. That is also the opening date
for Registration for the spring semester, including
classes and programs from February19 through May
20. John Jay College is located at 899 Tenth Avenue,
between 58th and 59th Street.
Sundays at JASA, a continuing education program for
adults 55 and over, has been providing high caliber
courses and lectures for 28 years. It is one of the few
programs to provide Sunday classes.
Sundays at JASA provides informal and intellectually
stimulating classes, such as Current Events, Comedy,
Shakespeare, Creative Writing, Opera, Acting,
Basics of Traditional Chinese Medicine, bridge, and
computer. In addition, there is a Sunday Morning
Workout and a Tai Chi class. Some new courses this
spring include Genealogy 101, Laughter Yoga, a
digital photography class, and Campaign 2012 – The
Primaries and Beyond. There is also a crossword
construction course – “Get A Clue!” – during which
the students will construct a puzzle for submission to
The New York Times. The class has had three puzzles
in the New York Times. Classes and lectures on Jewish
topics will also take place during the season.
Are you concerned about budget cuts, changes to pub-

lic transportation, senior center closings & Social Security? Join the Institute for Senior Action (IFSA), a
program of JASA, and learn how to get more involved
in the legislative process and be an effective advocate!
The 10-week IFSA program integrates critical aging
policy issues, with practical grassroots action. The
workshops are led by a diverse and knowledgeable
group of instructors from New York City, Albany and
Washington D.C., and focus on a wide variety of subjects, including: navigating the federal, state and local
legislative processes, public speaking, understanding
senior benefits and entitlements, and much more. The
fall term will be held on Wednesdays from February
22nd to May 2nd (10am-2:30pm) at Cooper Square,
200 East 5th Street, Manhattan. To learn more about
IFSA, or to request an application, please contact
Rebekah Glushefski at 212-273-5262 or email ifsa@
jasa.org. All adults 55+ are invited to apply.
JASA’s NextAct program has a series of upcoming
events, kicking off the spring season on the evening
of February 28th with a lecture by David Edelstein,
New York magazine film critic: “Aging Gracelessly in
Hollywood: The Obsession with Youth in Film and
Culture.” This event takes place at UJA-Federation,
130 E. 59th Street, from 6:00 – 7:30 p.m., followed by
a wine and cheese reception. On Thursday, March
15th NextAct will offer a Career Panel: The Art of
Networking, also at UJA-Federation from 6:00 – 7:30,
followed by a wine and cheese reception.
The JASA Volunteer Ventures Expo takes place on
Wednesday, March 7th, from 10:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at
UJA-Federation – a free conference and volunteer opportunities fair for adults 50+. For more information
or to register call 212-273-5222 or email volunteer@
jasa.org .
For additional information on Sundays at JASA, Institute of Judaic Studies and NextAct , or to receive
a catalog, please call Sara Tornay at 212- 273-5304.

N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

arts

Playing Host to Celebs
and Newcomers Alike
By Angela Barbuti
Tucked away on West 72nd Street
between Broadway and Columbus
Avenue is the 130-seat Triad Theater.
Inside, actors make their Off-Broadway
debuts, celebrities take the stage with
friends and audiences are always entertained by an eclectic variety of shows,
from Erotic Broadway to the smash
hit Celebrity Autobiography. We spoke
to owner Peter Martin about what to
expect there.

Peter Martin.
There were two sold-out shows one
New Year’s Eve and the coat check girl
misplaced all the numbers. People were
trying to get their coats out from the
first show while others were coming up
the stairs for the midnight show. It was
a disaster. Another time, John Simon,
a well-known theater critic, came in
to review Forbidden Broadway. He
checked his umbrella and somehow it
got lost. A couple of days later, he sent us
a bill for $300.

To what do you attribute your
success?
Times have changed Off-Broadway.
What is your favorite show at the the- In the last 10 years, tons of theaters
ater currently?
have closed. I’ve really had to adapt by
Celebrity Autobiography. Celebrities instating a new booking policy. In the
read from other celebrities’ memoirs course of a month, we can have 30 difin a comedic tone.
ferent shows. I’m always
You’ll have Matthew
thinking of how I can
Peter Martin
Broderick
reading
improve the theater and
Owner of The Triad Theater
from Tommy Lee’s
what’s going on in the
158 W. 72nd St.
autobiography.
On
entertainment industry.
(betw. Broadway & Columbus Ave.)
another night, you’ll
On Broadway, a musical
www.triadnyc.com
see
Kristen
Wiig
costs about $15 million.
reciting the poetry
Off-Broadway, you can
of Suzanne Somers. We’ve probably had experiment more. Things get started Offmore famous people in it than any show Broadway then move to Broadway. For
on Broadway.
instance, there’s a new musical in the
works about [’50s teen idol] Dion called
Have there been any memorable The Wanderer. The first reading was at
mishaps?
The Triad six weeks ago.
O u r To w n NY. c o m

Join now and get 6 FREE months *
Share up to two months with others!

Where Real New Yorkers Work Out.™

An agency of UJA-Federation

What is the history of the theater?
It started in the early ’80s with
Forbidden Broadway. It wasn’t even a
theater back then; it was a bar/restaurant called Palsson’s Supper Club. Actor
Gerard Alessandrini started writing
spoofs of Broadway shows and they were
performed there on weekends.

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West Side Spirit: How did you get
started at the Triad?
Peter Martin: I was the company
manager of a show called Forever Plaid
at the theater; it went on to become one
of the five most successful shows OffBroadway—the producer put in $135,000
and it grossed $300 million worldwide.
It seemed like a great business. In 1995,
when I was 30, I had the opportunity to
buy the theater. I was able to get in at the
right time.
The theater was a black box originally. About four years ago, I redesigned
it based on 1930s movie palaces. I love
those kinds of theaters and did a lot of
research. I recreated the bathrooms,
added a VIP performer lounge. People
tell me, “I’ve seen this in Europe.”

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Save the Dates for
Lively and Engaging Programs for Adults 55+
Aging Gracelessly in Hollywood: The
Obsession with Youth in Film and Culture
Tuesday, February 28 • 6 -7:30pm
followed by a wine and cheese reception.
UJA-Federation of New York, 130 E. 59th Street

SA

NextAct
a pr o g r a

m

J
at

A

Presented by David Edelstein, film critic for
New York magazine, NPR’s Fresh Air, and a
commentator on film for CBS Sunday Morning.
Please contact Sara Tornay at 212-273-5304 or
stornay@jasa.org to register.

According to a study done by the
Macaulay Honors Society at CUNY on
the MTS, these facilities have been
located in low-income areas, such
as Williamsburg or the South Bronx,
to which trucks drive trash from
Manhattan. Over half of the existing stations are in Brooklyn, where the median income for households is $40,000.
Household incomes near the MTS in the

feature
the community, feels that due to higher
than normal air pollution on the Upper
East Side, the city should rethink its
proposal.
“New York City has the highest rates
of asthma due to the No. 6 fuel oil that
most buildings’ boilers use,” he said.
The Upper East Side has the highest
number of buildings using No. 6 oil in
the city and that, on top of the new station, he said will create an even more
polluted environment for neighborhood
residents.
On an unusually warm winter day,
Suzanne Antonelli, a grandmother, sat

“Local fishermen and the
State Department of
Environmental Conservation
both say that the area around
the proposed MTS is teeming
with fish—including Atlantic
striped bass—and is one of
the best fishing spots around,”
Rep. Carolyn Maloney said.

Presented by NYU Cancer Institute, an NCI-designated Cancer Center
Ever feel like your age isn’t just a number? If so, remember you can
feel your best at any age by taking care of yourself both physically and
emotionally. This lecture will provide tips for relaxation and help you
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South Bronx are even lower; $21,000 is
the average.
The mayor’s office and City Council
Speaker Christine Quinn’s office didn’t
return calls or messages seeking
comment.
Peter Sapienza, a lieutenant in the
Fire Department and 25-year resident of

Air

continued from page

6

of the air around the project and respond
accordingly to the findings.
“Right now, the community’s only avenue is essentially only the MTA hiring a
third party,” Quart said. “That’s not good
public policy.”
Quart said he worked with Manhattan
Borough President Scott Stringer to craft
the legislation. Stringer also attended the
meeting to encourage residents and city
agencies to work to get real solutions, not-

with her grandkids at Asphalt Green
Park. She voiced her concern over how
traffic to the waste station would make
an already dangerous intersection even
worse. “It is just going to congest it so
much more,” she said. “I just don’t know
where Bloomberg’s head is with this
whole thing.”

ing that residents have been complaining
about dust, debris and unpleasant odors
related to the construction for years now.
“We have to work together to keep
small businesses and improve the air
quality,” Stringer said, asking for support
of Quart’s bill.
The good news for residents is that
there is an end date for the blasting,
which Horodniceanu said was already
60 percent complete. “Blasting in the
main cavern will be done this summer,”
he said. In April, they will begin blasting
at East 86th Street, which is expected to
last 15 to 19 months, putting the end at
November 2013.
N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

From ‘Hello’ to ‘Hola’

new york family

Spearheaded by a NYC mom, the popular early language learning program ‘Little Pim’
offers scientifically based videos and a generous dollop of fun
By Christine Wei

H

e’s a jolly panda with big furry
ears and an infectious giggle.
There’s much to love about Little
Pim‚ the popular cartoon bear that has
been teaching foreign languages via conversation skills to children ages 6 months
to 6 years since 2008.
Little Pim is the cuddly creation of New
York City mom Julia Pimsleur Levine, the
daughter of the mastermind behind the
Pimsleur audio language learning method for adults. First featured in foreign
language-only DVDs, the adorable bear
has now spawned a series of flashcards,
music CDs, online games and books for
children.
This educational ecosystem—at first
glance a natural trajectory of a growing
business—speaks to the very backbone
of the Little Pim philosophy. “Language
learning is not a one-stop shop. We
really see ourselves as a starting point for children to love
language learning and want
to engage with it,” explained
Pimsleur Levine. “Our goal at
Little Pim is to be every child’s
first introduction.”
Pimsleur
Levine,
who
speaks more than three languages herself, conceived the
series while hunting for tools
to help her oldest son learn
French. When she found nothing that fit the bill, this former language
instructor and filmmaker merged her
professional and personal experiences to

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Great for children ages 4-11. For more
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O u r To w n NY. c o m

create her own teaching tool. The result?
A lively, laughing panda who narrates
day-to-day scenarios, popping in and out
of real-life vignettes to call out common
objects and actions.
The high-energy videos in which Little
Pim appears tap into something that’s
become more and more valuable to educators and parents everywhere. “If it wasn’t
fun or high-quality, kids wouldn’t watch
and they wouldn’t learn—that’s why fun
is really important to us,” Pimsleur Levine
said of working with her award-winning
team of producers in the early stages of
the company. “[We wanted] to come up
with something just as exciting as watching Curious George or Elmo or whatever
else kids might be watching.”
But she noted that Little Pim is categorically distinct from other TV shows
whose educational values have been
recently questioned.
“We chose the DVD medium because

we wanted to make it easy for parents
and kids,” she said, “but ours is a teaching series that just happens to be as fun as
the entertainment series [that] don’t have
an expressed teaching method.”
Pointing to the Entertainment Immersion
Method she developed with input from
neuroscientist Dr. April Benasich, Pimsleur
Levine argues that Little Pim starts with
a scientifically supported approach, then
adds a major splash of fun.
That’s where the “booster products”—the online games, coloring pages
and pull-tab books—all come in, to support the core DVDs that are available for
download.
“The brain is actually hard-wired to
absorb and reproduce sounds of other
languages and learn vocabulary through
the age of 6,” Pimsleur Levine cited.
“After the age of 6, children are neurally
committed to [their native language], so

Julia Pimsleur Levine and family.
it gets exponentially harder every
year after a child turns 6 to pick up
a new language.” At an age when
kids are especially sensitive to the
vocabulary repetition found in the
videos, the booster products serve
as additional reinforcement.
Foreign language learning has
exploded across the nation in
recent years—especially given the
academic benefits correlated with
bilingualism—and Pimsleur Levine
spoke to the importance of lowering
the bar for what’s required of moms and
dads to participate in their child learning
a new language. “Most parents want to
introduce their kids to a second language,
but don’t speak [it] themselves,” she said.
With phonetic spellings and free downloadable scripts, all parents can be easily
involved in the Little Pim program.
But the series is quite practical in
more ways than one; Little Pim is fully
focused on conversational skills. “We
picked words that are relevant to young
children,” Pimsleur Levine said. “If you
were to try to do another [company’s]
film with your 4-year-old, [she] would be
learning how to say things like, ‘Where’s
my passport?’ or ‘Can I get a cab?’—when
really what your child needs to know how
to say is ‘I want chocolate cake.’”
For children beyond Little Pim’s target
years, Pimsleur Levine suggests parents
opt for formal classes. “When kids are 5 to

10, they’re very social, and it’s very important for them to have a learning experience with their peers,” she said. “You also
want to teach them reading and writing
then—Little Pim is totally focused on the
early years, pre-reading, with hearing and
repeating intuitively.”
While Pimsleur Levine and her company are keeping their eyes on cornering
this window of opportunity for learning,
they’ll be cracking down on digital initiatives in the near future. Beyond the current iPad and iPhone games, they plan to
bring the video series to mobile gadgets.
They’re also likely to expand to the muchdemanded languages of Portuguese and
Korean.
At the end of the day, Pimsleur Levine
advises parents serious about teaching
their children a second language to keep
it fun and keep at it.
“The trick is to keep a little bit going
all the time,” she said. “You don’t have to
force it on them, but you can keep speaking [in a second language] even if they
don’t answer. Like anything, it takes some
research and dedication.”
However frustrating the process may
be, a cuddly panda might just make it easier for little ones.
For more on language learning, check
out our story on raising a bilingual
child—“Que Pasa, Mommy?”—at newyorkfamily.com.
F ebruary 2, 2012 •

O U R TO W N

•

13

Catholic Schools:
Faith. Academics. Service.

To our teachers

To our parents

To our students

We proudly represent the teachers in the following Manhattan Schools

The Federation of Catholic Teachers • OPEIU • Local 153 • AFL-CIO

14•

OUR TOWN

•

January 19, 2012

NEWS YOU LIVE BY

Discover
June 25 – August 3
• For PreK – Grade 12
• Academic and arts enrichment
• Adventures in sports and healthy living
• Leadership development and
international explorations

Cecil Fabulous
Beaton’s New York years revived
By Marsha McCreadie
One high aesthetic compliment is to
call an artist ahead of his time. Yet, the
real trick is to be both of your time and
ahead of it. Cecil Beaton—photographer,
illustrator, set and costume designer, even
author—turned that trick, and nicely, too.
The fabulous results and even a hint at his
motivation are currently exhibited at the
Museum of the City of New York.
Courtesy CeCil Beaton studio arChive at sotheBy’s

Decorator de Wolfe got Beaton social
access and he flattered, cunningly: “I
only photograph those I like and admire.”
(Summation-type Beaton quotes are posted throughout.) From a wealthy but not
aristocratic background, he was clearly
more comfortable in a Manhattan filled
with other arrivistes than in class-fixed
old England.
When the stylistic tide turned against
his lush Vogue and Vanity Fair painterly
tableaux, shifting to the informal action
photography of Richard Avedon and
Irving Penn, Beaton didn’t wail, he moved
on—to sets and costumes for Broadway
and Hollywood, though he resented time
spent in L.A.
The show highlights details of the
Ascot Race set from My Fair Lady,
famously imitated by Truman Capote’s
Plaza Hotel Black and White Ball.
Peek at Beaton’s letters and other
writing for an ironic self-view. See a
handsome-looking woman in a shiny
dress and bob, shot from behind, glancing over her shoulder. It’s Beaton in drag,
clever enough to omit pearls thrown carelessly down the back to tip you off.
Is there a discernable Beaton style?
Was he the Picasso of the photography and
design world—with a clear signature, even
when using multiple modes? No and no.
Who cares? He caught various zeitgeists
and their emblematic people, made viewers want to look and dress like them and
unapologetically took bits and pieces from
every genre. You could call it artistic shoplifting (some did)—or, eventually, homage.
Cecil Beaton: The New York Years
Through Feb. 20, Museum of the City of
New York, 1220 5th Ave., 212-534-1672,
www.mcny.org.
On Saturday, Feb. 11, join curator
Donald Albrecht for the all-day symposium Gay New York and the Arts of
the 20th Century at the Museum of the
City of New York. Joining Albrecht—
who curated The New York Years—
will be Yale University professor
Geoffrey Chauncey and Beaton biographer Hugo Vickers, along with other
authors and authorities on the city’s
artistic life from the 1920s through the
1960s. Tickets are $25 for members,
$35 for nonmembers. Reservations
and pre-payment are required. A $15
box lunch is available for preorder if
reserved by Feb. 3.

F ebruary 2, 2012

•

O U R TO W N

•

15

arts

New Series Features
New York’s Most Macabre

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By Anam Baig
macabre stereoviews, in particular my
Ronni Thomas, a filmmaker and oddity set of diableries, which are French steenthusiast, has created a new web series reo tissues from the 1860s that depict
documenting the darkness, eccentricity Satan’s daily life in hell. I always kind of
and mystery of the uncharted and unimag- sat on these macabre demented things,
inable happenings of New York City.
these private fetishes. When I saw the
Fittingly named The Midnight variety of people who showed up for my
Archive, these videos boast an eclectic lecture, from Harvard professors to gutclass of characters such as Sue Jeiven, ter punks to people I didn’t even know
a tattoo artist at East River Tattoo, and from my old high school, I decided, let’s
Madame Cagliastro of Brooklyn. Jeiven, make a film out of this stuff.”
who is featured in episode three, speMany of the eclectics filmed for The
cializes in anthropomorphic taxidermy, Midnight Archive are lecturers at the
creating lifelike tableaux from dead ani- Brooklyn Observatory, an event space at
mals that she guts, stuffs and lovingly 543 Union St. in Brooklyn that serves as
clothes in vintage human attire. Madame a multipurpose room for artists. That’s
Cagliastro also
deals
with
animals,
performing mummification for
pets weighing
20 pounds or
less—she mummifies a dead
toad in the first
episode.
Episode
eight, the latest
on the Midnight
Archive
website, is entitled
“Wax.”
Sigrid Ronni Thomas, creator of The Midnight Archive.
Sarda, an artist
who started making hauntingly human where Thomas met Joanna Ebenstein,
wax sculptures after the death of her the curator of Morbid Anatomy at the
father, hosts with her spooky collection Observatory and now the producer of
of wax figures that line every inch of her the series.
house.
Thomas said that after the first epiOther members of the odd ensemble sode, TV networks were offering to air
who work on the series include Mitch the show, but it would have meant less
Horowitz, author of Occult New York; creative control for Thomas and the guys
Jere Ryder, conservator for the Guiness at IKA Collective, whom he says have
Automata collection at the Morris “fostered a very artistic environment”
Museum in New Jersey; and profes- for him to pursue his work. Television
sor Paul Koudounaris, who traveled the might also “exploit these people or make
world photographing ossuaries and char- them look stupid,” and even though the
nel houses, places constructed of human money would be good, Thomas remains
bones.
speculative about selling out his perverse
In his IKA Collective office at 15 E. brainchild.
32rd St. in Midtown, Thomas sits among
“I want people to see these everyday
a giant Grim Reaper, scary child dolls and people doing extraordinary things, and I
other spine-chilling items as he edits a wanted to give them a view from an insidnew episode of the show.
er, myself, who has had a lifelong fascinaThe episode features Thomas himself tion and respect for these things. There is
discussing his collection of stereoviews, a dark underside to all things, and I want
a late 19th century entertainment con- to open up that side to those who are outsisting of 3-D images projected through a wardly interested and to those who live
stereoscope—a much older and intricate two lives,” he said.
ancestor of 3-D View-Masters.
To watch, visit themidnightarchive.
“The lecture was on my collection of com.
N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

WHAT ARE YOUR KIDS DOING THIS SUMMER?

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Renee Flax, the associate director of the
ACA NY & NJ, will be on hand to answer
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their search for the right camp!

Pre-register for a chance to win NJ Nets Tickets!
New York Family magazine and the
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O u r T o w n N Y. c o m

January 19, 2012

•

OUR TOWN

•

17

FILM

Lucas crashes ‘Red Tails’

PHOTO cOurTesy Of TwenTieTH
cenTury fOx films

Jar Jar Binks Goes to War

By Armond White
(Terrence Howard) and Maj. Emmanuel
George Lucas’ sales tactics for Red Stone (Cuba Gooding Jr.) are shallow
Tails, his $93 million production about lifers given to speeches about perseverthe Tuskegee Airmen, the first African- ance. All are cartoon figures; visually, the
American pilots in the armed forces, film also resembles a cartoon: postcard
make a bigger bang than the film itself.
colors that make the squadron’s base at
On the publicity rounds, Lucas has the Ramitelli Airfield in Italy look like it
talked about the dearth of movies with was shot in Southern California (oops!).
African-American heroes, promising that
Cartoonishness
defines
Lucas’
Red Tails will give black teens the kinds approach to Hollywood revisionism; he
of on-screen heroes and patriotic good doesn’t take World War II any more serifeeling they’ve been denied. Apparently, ously than he took the Galactic Empire,
Lucas has missed all blaxpoitation, and the Tuskegee Airmen mean no more
post-blaxploitation and post-hip-hop to him than the Jedi knights.
cinema, not to mention the 1995 TV film
The pilots, who due to military segreThe Tuskegee Airmen. Lucas’ ignorance gation were denied the right to fly combat
condemns Red Tails to be irredeemably missions but were used as escorts and
condescending.
decoys for white fighter pilots, perform
It’s also one poor piece of filmmak- selflessly to unspecific codes of conduct,
ing. Red Tails’ 332nd Fighter Group are a as if they were uninvolved in history.
bunch of superficial GI stereotypes, black This is goofball heroism, though totally
only in the brown-skinned Obama sense, without a sense of humor—less, even,
displaying superficial personal traits. than Snoopy’s fantasy dogfights with The
Their captain, Easy (Nate Parker), drinks Red Baron, which Red Tails frequently
for courage, and pilot Lightning (David evokes.
Oyewolo)
is a brash daredevil.
Why comic
stripPage
artist
Aaron
Q01244 FEC-Personal
Planning:Layout 3 1/30/12
11:50 AM
1
Their commanders, Col. A.J. Bullard McGruder (The Boondocks) participated

The Tuskegee Airmen in Red Tails.
in co-writing the screenplay is mystifying given the film’s total lack of his usual
sarcasm. McGruder, too, must believe
in The Force, which has infantilized
American cinema since Star Wars, and
so answered Lucas’ call to sign up. That
meant signing on to the notion that moviegoers wouldn’t respond to a serious
depiction of young men who fulfilled the
intellectual requirements of aviation or
comprehend the complexity of young
black people who felt duty-bound to
fight for the country that denied them
basic civil rights.
By promoting Red Tails (named for the
Airmen’s customized new P-51 Mustang
aircraft) as a correction of Hollywood
bigotry, Lucas shows that he knows nothing about how popular culture works.
In a New York Times magazine puff
piece, Lucas explained his wish for cul-

tural crossover: “...which is what you get
with sports. Which is what you get with
music. I wanted to do it with just being
an American citizen.” He ignores how
black moviegoers have often identified
with white movie heroes and enjoyed cinematic patriotism—and not vicariously.
When Red Tails’ Airmen fraternize with
white officers, they never so much as ask
which states they came from. This isn’t
American culture; it’s beer commercial
bonhomie.
Red Tails not only insults the experiences of the Tuskegee Airmen, it is disconnected from the figures of black male
dignity that audiences embraced when
forged by Rex Ingram, Paul Robeson,
Juano Hernandez, James Douglas,
Canada Lee, Woody Strode, Ivan Dixon
and others that George Lucas forgets.
He’s Jar Jar Binked us again.

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Ground Line Redefines How Women Artists Have Evolved
By Joe Bendik
Daniele Marin’s current exhibition,
Ground Line, at Noho Gallery explores
how women in art and society have
evolved over time. By using iconic
imagery along with the mundane, Marin
recontextualizes these images to create
nonlinear narratives. Doing this makes
the historical information seem fresh.
Marin also uses fabric in the acrylic
paintings, creating texture and delineating space.
As Marin said, “The incorporation of
fabric shifts the expectation about traditional feminine arts.” It also serves as an
anchor point for the eye, a place of return.
Marin considers the painting surface
a stage where different techniques communicate with each other. In fact, the
paintings themselves seem to speak to
each other. The color of each painting
works within the bigger concept of the
show. Marin is particularly interested in
“the ground line,” the foundation for this
exhibit, which is the horizontal plane on
which objects sit. She weaves this into
all of the works, establishing unity while
referencing “still” images from the past,
thereby reclaiming and redefining their

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“Ground Line #1.” Painting (Acrylic & Mixed Media. 9’x30”x22”).
roles as ‘feminine.’ The result is a new
way of viewing traditional materials.
Marin was born in Paris but lives in
the United States. She has an MFA from
the Pratt Institute and has won two painting awards from the Visual Arts Center in
New Jersey. She has been featured in Art
in America and Woman’s Art Journal

C

Celebrates

American
Heart
Month
2012

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(Rutgers), among other publications.
Some of her works are in the collection
of the Newark Museum, the Montclair
museum and Merrill Lynch, as well as private collections.
This show runs through Feb. 4. While
visiting the exhibition, I had the eerie feeling of walking through a different state of

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Thursday, February 2, 2012

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being; somehow becoming a part of the
ground line myself, as if I was inside the
paintings.
Daniele Marvin: Ground Line
Noho Gallery, 530 W. 25th St., 4th Fl.,
212-367-7063, www.danielemarin.com.
Tuesday–Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Screenings, Lectures, Demonstrations,
and Mind-Body Techniques
FREE and Open to the Public

Stress Reduction
Risk Factors
and More...

- Giveaways & Door Prizes For more information

www.NYULMC.org/heart2012

O u r To w n NY. c o m

F ebruary 2, 2012

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19

events

Best Bets for Super Bowl XLVI
By Andrew Rice
Best Super Bowl Party
Playwright Irish Pub, 27 W. 35th St.
(betw. 5th & 6th Aves.),
playwrightirishpubnyc.com.
It’d be hard
for almost any
bar to top the
Playwright
for square
i n c h e s
of
screen
space, as this
Irish sports bar
has over 80 of
them in their twofloor establishment.
For a pair of Andrew
Jacksons, you’ll get an
open bar and buffet to enjoy as you
watch the G-Men battle it out with the
Pats.
Patriots Bar
The Three Monkeys, 236 W. 54th St.
(betw. Broadway & 8th Ave.), thethree-

monkeysbar.com.
Two floors of TVs. One giant screen.
36 beers on tap. 13 wins—I could keep
going on about the ultimate Patriots bar
in the city tucked away in the theater
district. Unlike most of its competitors, drinking here won’t break
the bank, and all the food
from nachos to wings to
burgers, is all stellar. Long
live the gastropub!
Big
Screens
Galore
Mickey Mantle’s
Restaurant and
Sports Bar, 42
Central Park S.,
mickeymantles.
com.
Holy guacamole. This place has more
big-screen TVs than you can shake a
stick at; they adorn every surface. Get
yourself a giant steak, a giant pint of
beer, and go root for the Giants. When
we take home the Lombardi trophy,
you can snag a boisterous carriage ride

through the park to let everyone know
that you bleed blue.
The Place to Drink
Slattery’s Midtown Pub, 8 E. 36th St.
(betw. 5th & Madison Aves.), slatterysmidtownpub.com.
Slattery’s is probably
hosting the best drink
special in the entire city
on Super Bowl Sunday.
For an even $50,
there is unlimited open bar
and combo plate
filled with all of
your game goodies. But this isn’t
your typical open
bar where you’re stuck
with watery domestics—every.
Shelf. Is. Top. Shelf.
Savor it.
Best Eats
Landsdowne Road, 599 10th Ave. (betw.
43rd & 44th Sts.), lansdowneroadnyc.
com.

Every football fan knows that the
quintessential food for the big game
is wings, delicious, delicious wings.
Lansdowne is known for having the
best wings in the city, with a
huge variety. And tons of
huge screens means
you’ll always catch
someone
being
pummeled into
the AstroTurf.
Place to Watch
Jack
Russell’s
Pub, 1591 2nd
Ave. (at 83rd St.),
jackrussellsnyc.
com.
You can’t beat
Jack Russell’s when
it comes to watching the game
uptown. They have 13 large HD
screens and the tables each have
their own HD flat-screen TV. If the
cheap drinks and all those TVs can’t
keep you entertained, there is always
the beer pong tables, pool tables and
arcade games.

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OUR TOW N

•

F ebruary 2, 2012

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N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

Dining

Go Light with Torrontes

up even more, the Bodegas y Vinedos
La Esperanza Torrontes Cafayate
Menduco Reserve 2010 ($12.75 at
Garnet Wines and Liquors, 929 Lexington
Ave., betw. 68th & 69th Sts., 212-7723211) is possibly the spiciest torrontes
I’ve ever tried. Right out of the bottle
and into the glass the wine smells simpler than it tastes, with scents of pear
and orange peel. Up front on the palate,
however, there’s a good amount of white
pepper and starfruit. This leads to a mid
with white peach and ripe orange flavors.
The finish is full and floral with magnolia blossom and papaya notes. This is the
Torrontes to pair with a spicy Pad Thai.
And for those who love the classic
flavors of French, old-world-style white
wines, try the Bodegas y Vinedos La
Esperanza Torrontes Cafayate Valley
Finca El Origen Reserve 2010 ($12 at
Garnet Wines and Liquors). This wine has
all the telltale scents and flavors of a lean
and racy Chablis; wet granite is the main
event on the nose. The palate continues
the minerality throughout with green
apple, pear and lemon zest on the finish.
So don’t be afraid to go light this winter. Think of it as a preview of our (hopefully) beautiful spring!

Argentinean white goes perfect with warm winter

PUBLIC NOTICE
NOTICE IS HEREBY
GIVEN, PURSUANT TO
LAW, that the Department of Consumer Affairs will hold a Public
Hearing on Wednesday,
February 15, 2012 at
2:00 p.m. at 66 John
Street on the 11th floor,
on a petition from Old
Heidelberg Corp. to
continue to, maintain
and operate an unenclosed sidewalk cafe‘ at
1648 Second Avenue in
the Borough of
Manhattan for a term
of two years.
REQUESTS FOR COPIES OF THE PROPOSED REVOCABLE CONSENT
AGREEMENT MAY BE ADDRESSED TO: DEPARTMENT OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS, ATTN: FOIL OFFICER, 42 BROADWAY, NEW YORK,
NY 10004.

O u r To w n NY. c o m

ten, which is how I ran into my long lost
friend torrontes.
Torrontes is a grape that is indigenous
to Argentina. It is also, sadly, a varietal
that rings few bells with the vast majority of United States wine drinkers. That’s
unfortunate, because these are some of
the best bang-for-yourbuck white wines
from anywhere. It’s
also strange, because
By Josh Perilo torrontes is the most
produced white wine
in Argentina. The typical flavor profile is
fruit-forward and light- to medium-bodied
with citrus and apple notes, but as you’ll
see from my selections, there are a number of ways the profile for this versatile
grape can go.
So, allow me to take you by the hand
and lead you through the delicious and
inexpensive field of Argentinean torrontes.
If you haven’t tried torrontes before,
a great one to start with is the Bodegas
Callia Torrontes Tulum Valley Alta
2010 ($9.45 at Morrell and Company,

1 Rockefeller Plz., 48th St. & 5th Ave.,
212-688-9370). This is a simple, pareddown, refreshingly delicious wine that
will kick the door open for those who are
new to the grape. On the nose, there’s a
good amount of fresh orange zest. The
citrus flavors continue on the palate
with riper tangerine notes up front. The
middle becomes sparer and more herbal
with notes of chervil, and the finish has a
clean, bright minerality.
For a torrontes that stays simple
but has a little more body to it, look
no further than Bodega Monteviejo
Torrontes Argentina Festivo 2010 ($13
at Yorkshire Wines and Spirits, 1646 1st
Ave. at 85th St., 212-717-5100)—it takes
the basic profile of torrontes and kicks
up the intensity several notches. Scents of
intense wildflowers waft from the glass.
Honeysuckle and orchid are the main
event. On the palate, though, it’s all about
tropical fruit and melon; lots of mango up
front with notes of honeydew through the
middle and a dollop of lychee on the finish.
Taking the intensity and dialing it

Follow Josh on Twitter: @joshperilo.

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I left the house on Tuesday to move my
car and I wasn’t wearing a coat.
Yes, this is the wine column, but I felt
that sentence needed to be said. It’s both
thrillingly amazing (considering the snow
spanking we got last year) and very, very
scary. By the way, thanks, Al Gore! I still
have trouble sleeping whenever it’s
unseasonably warm.
But let’s focus
on the positive,
which is that this
weather is kicking some serious butt!
Winter is usually the time when I stock up
on heavy reds like Cali cabs, those amped
up, high-alcohol shirazes from Western
Australia and big, earthy tannin monsters
from northern Italy. This year, however,
those wines just seem out of place and a
bit smothering.
So instead I’ve been turning to wines
I usually don’t give a second glance until
April or May. It’s allowed me to go back
and reconsider some selections that
I’ve never tried or completely forgot-

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22•

OUR TOWN

•

January 19, 2012

NEWS YOU LIVE BY

events

Celebrating Black
History Month
Black History Month is being celebrated all over the city, including
many places uptown. Below are just
a few of the highlights.

Free at Lincoln Center
Lincoln Center is staging free
concerts this month for Black
History Month. Seating is limited and available on a first come,
first served basis at the David
Rubenstein Atrium, Broadway
between 62nd and 63rd streets. For
more information, visit www.lincolncenter.org/Atrium.
The music of Duke Ellington will be performed
Feb. 4 at 11 a.m., the Harlem Feb. 7 at a free concert.
Gospel Choir will lead a program for
families.
of the Birmingham, Ala., 16th Street
Feb. 7 at 7:30 p.m., Loren Schoenberg Baptist Church.
and the National Jazz Museum All Stars
The Historical Society is located at
will present “Drop Me Off in Harlem: An 170 Central Park West and is open 10
Evening of Ellingtonia,” highlighting the a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays–Thursdays and
work of Duke Ellington.
Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. on Fridays
and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays.
New-York Historical Society
Admission is $5–$15 and children under
The New-York Historical Society is 7 are free. For more information, call
hosting several events and exhibits in rec- 212-873-3400 or visit www.nyhistory.org.
ognition of Black History Month.
Feb. 5 and 19 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
Films for Youth
re-enactors will bring the 1st Rhode Island
The Schomburg Center for Research
Regiment back to life. The unit was one in Black Culture, 515 Malcolm X Blvd.,
of the earliest regiments in America to will be screening free films for youth and
actively enlist African Americans. The teens Feb. 14–16. Online registration is
1st Rhode Island Regiment fought in the required at www.NYPL.org. For more
Battle of Newport in 1778 and spent the information, call 212- 491-2200.
infamous winter at Valley Forge without
Feb. 14, 10:30 a.m.–12:30 p.m., On
receiving any post-war compensation for The Shoulders of Giants: The Story
their efforts.
of the Greatest Basketball Team You
Feb. 16 at 6:30 p.m., “The Battle for Never Heard Of will be shown. The 2011
Civil Rights,” a conversation between film by basketball great Kareem AbdulDavid Levering Lewis and Khalil Gibran Jabbar explores the Harlem Renaissance
Muhammad, will be held.
through the eyes of Abdul-Jabbar as he
The discussion is presented in con- presents the life and times of the Harlem
junction with one of the society’s exhib- Rens basketball team. Recommended for
its, Freedom Now: Photographs by ages 5–18.
Platon. The installation of large-scale
Feb. 15, 10 a.m.–noon, Freedom
images by the celebrated photographer Riders, by Stanley Nelson, will be shown.
shows the historic struggle of the 1950s The true story of an integrated band of
and 1960s.
young college students who risked everyAmong the subjects are the Little thing by boarding a Greyhound Bus headRock Nine, whose attempt to enter ed to the Deep South. Recommended for
Little Rock Central High School in 1957 ages 13–18.
became a national cause célèbre; Joseph
Feb. 16, 10–11 a.m., The Prep School
A. McNeil and Franklin E. McCain, par- Negro, by André Robert Lee, will be
ticipants in the 1960 Greensboro lunch- shown. This documentary explores the
counter sit-in; and Chris and Maxine experiences of Lee and present-day prep
McNair, the parents of Denise McNair, school students of color. Recommended
who was murdered in the bombing for ages 13–18.
O u r To w n NY. c o m

We’ve thought of everything to enrich and enhance your life.
Call us and come visit, we have special Winter pricing.

www.isabella.org
BAYARD

ADVERTISING AGENCY, INC

JOB #:
CLIENT: Isabella House
PUBS:
our town
SIZE:
4.915 X 5.541
DATE:
1-23-11
COST:
There’s one thing to feel young but another
to act MJ
young. The residents at Isabella
ARTIST:
House have found an entirely different way
of acting young. During performance
days you might be walking by and hear a COMP:
dramaticbayard
rendition of Macbeth or a
REV. 0
famous line from King Lear may capture OK
your
attention.
But these are not profesto Release

Acting Young.

sional actors being brought in to put on a show for the residents. Nope, these are the
residents of Isabella.
Partnering with the People’s Theatre Project of Northern Manhattan, Isabella began
to offer acting classes for their residents. The classes provide the opportunity for
our residents to live someone else’s life for a few hours each day. Classics such as
Macbeth and King Lear are performed live in front of their fellow residents—who
can be the harshest critics. The classes’ help our residents feel lively and vibrant and
more importantly, it keeps them fresh.
The acting classes are in addition to Isabella House’s Tai-Chi, Chair Yoga, Posture
Exercise, poetry and painting classes. For more leisure-oriented activities they offer
Game Nights and Movie Nights.
Residency at Isabella House also comes with lunch and dinner served restaurant
style in our elegant dining room. Getting out and about is easy – whether you
choose our weekly transportation to local stores – or decide on local buses, subway
or taxi to nearby midtown
Manhattan.
Isabella House offers the best of life, whether you want a dynamic schedule of
activities – or the freedom to relax in the quiet of your home.
For more information or to arrange a visit, please call (212) 342-9539. Isabella
House is located at 525 Audubon Avenue, New York, NY 10040. Visit their
website at www.isabella.org

F ebruary 2, 2012

•

O U R TO W N

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23

CLASSI FI E DS

www.

Sudoku-Puzzles .net

Classified Advertising Department Information

POLICY NOTICE: We make every effort to avoid mistakes in your classified ads. Check your ad the first week it
runs. We will only accept responsibility for the first incorrect insertion. Manhattan Media Classifieds assumes no
financial responsibility for errors or omissions. We reserve the right to edit, reject, or re-classify any ad. Contact your
sales rep directly for copy changes. All classified ads are pre-paid.

NEW YORK CITY DEPARTMENT
OF TRANSPORTATION NOTICE OF
PUBLIC HEARING
The New York City Department of
Transportation will hold a public hearing
on Wednesday February 15, 2012 at
2:00 P.M., at 55 Water St., 9th Floor
Room 945, on the following petitions for
revocable consent, all in the Borough of
Manhattan:
#1 250 Park Avenue, LLC -to continue
to maintain and use two splicing
chambers under the north and south
sidewalks of E 46th St, between
Madison and Vanderbilt Aves.
#2 American Broadcasting Companies,
Inc.- to continue to maintain and use
conduits and manholes within the
sidewalk areas of W 67th St., Columbus
Ave. and W 66th St. and under and
across W 66th St. east of Columbus Ave.
#3 Beverly Weinstein-to continue to
maintain and use a stoop and a fencedin area on the north sidewalk of St.
Luke’s Pl., east of Hudson St.
#4 George C. Biddle and Leslie D.
Biddle-to construct, maintain and use
a stoop, steps and a fenced-in area on
the north sidewalk of E 95th St., west
of Lexington Ave.
#5 Joel Weinshanker-to construct,
maintain and use a stoop, fenced-in
area and snowmelt system on the south
sidewalk of E 10th St., east of Fifth Ave.

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What Obama’s State of the
Union Means for New York
By Alan S. Chartock
In politics, there is an old saying: “First
you have to win.” A corollary is “Winning
is everything.” Another companion idiom in American politics is “There are no
co-winners.”
I was speaking with someone the other
day who said that in the American presidency, Democrats get the chance to be
either Jimmy Carter, a man with integrity
who lost, or Bill Clinton, who was all about
winning. With that in mind, let’s take a look
at President Barack Obama’s State of the
Union address and just a few of its implications for New York State and its voters.
A lot of people voted for Obama when
he said, “Yes we can!” They thought he
meant, “Yes we can [fill in the blank].”
Many of them were disappointed when he
showed that he’d rather be a Clinton winner than a Carter loser; he had the center
left, and they weren’t going anywhere. He
needed to win the folks in the middle and
those who held the purse strings in the
skewed economic system in which we live.
You need money to win. You can call
these people the 1 Percenters. If you are
not taking from their pot, they might actually let you live. There were many folks
who wanted to punish the bankers whose
antics left so many people with homes
that were underwater, but many of those

Better Location

To the Editor:
In response to “Neighbors Won’t See
the Light of New Cancer Center” (Jan.
26), I must speak up for my building
(440 E. 62nd St.) and the community of
the Upper East Side. Your account of the
meeting was different than what I witnessed and missed or dismissed the most
important points. Those points are:
1) The effect on traffic. Memorial
Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC)
admittedly did not perform a traffic feasibility analysis. Currently, traffic often
backs up onto the FDR Drive in either
direction. Currently, traffic backs up onto
the Queensboro Bridge. This will worsen
considerably.
Consider this: MSKCC’s building will
have no garage, only a driveway. Postoperative patients, by law, must be
accompanied out of the building by someone. Do you think they will walk with

in key economic positions around Obama
were way too close to the bad guys in the
great American economic disaster.
If you examine the State of the Union
message, you can see two Obamas.
One is the progressive president. He tells
the college-aged that he is with them when
it comes to how much their education is
costing them and their families. This is the
group of people who helped put Obama
over the top in the last election and he needs
them back. He needs their passion. By telling young people that the federal
government will punish states and
colleges that raise tuition, he reenergizes those kids to get out and
vote and work for him.
On the other hand, in New
York, State University Chancellor
Nancy Zimpher, a ball of fire,
and Gov. Andrew Cuomo came
together with the Legislature in an agreement to save SUNY in this very tough
economic climate. In order to do that, the
University, which has always been a relative bargain, is raising tuition.
My bet is that the folks who fashioned
that deal cannot be happy with what
they heard from the president. To some
degree, I imagine they thought they were
being punched in the solar plexus.
They weren’t the only ones. There was

the proposal by Obama that we move
ahead with hydrofracking, a drilling process that employs dangerous chemicals
to extract natural gas from shale. Here in
New York, there has been so much passion
appropriately raised about hydrofracking
that Cuomo, thought by some to have been
in favor of it, seems to have cooled on the
idea. No matter how much politicians want
the revenue and energy that hydrofracking
might provide, they can’t seem to convince
the people to accept a process that threatens to poison our drinking water.
So here we have just two of
the many things that the president
spoke about that may be good for
his politics but not necessarily
good for the people of New York
State. Let’s face it: The president
knows what he has to do to win.
Under no circumstances will he
lose New York State. He will get these
electoral votes, so he doesn’t have to worry about New York the way he might about
Florida or Ohio. It’s sort of like a wife who
will always be there as opposed to a fickle
mistress. Get the analogy?
Alan S. Chartock is president and CEO
of WAMC/Northeast Public Radio and an
executive publisher at The Legislative
Gazette.

LET T ER S

their escort up the hill to the subway? No!
Someone will be waiting for them in a car,
probably on York Avenue.
2) MSKCC’s unwillingness to even
talk to its neighbors. MSKCC filed its
request for variances (allowances to build
beyond what New York City code allows)
and fast-tracked approval just as the holiday season began. Perhaps our all-volunteer board was remiss, but the residents
of the building learned of the Community
Board 8 meeting with only a week’s notice.
3) Our building supports a MSKCC
facility here. This is what prompted me to
write this letter. Overwhelmingly, the people who spoke that night clearly stated that
they had no problem with MSKCC building next door. They only wanted MSKCC
to respect previous agreements negotiated
with the help of Community Board 8.
Many current and former MSKCC
employees live in this building. Several
people living here are patients of the hospital. They merely want the building to fit
into the neighborhood.

4) While residents of the affected
building learned of MSKCC’s plans
only a week before the community
board meeting, somehow, a patient
managed to show up with a prepared
speech, a speech that had nothing to
do with the debate or even with reality. The speech cast my building’s residents
as rich people trying to deny convenient
medical care to poor people like him. This
is a ridiculous and insulting lie.
Your paper purports to serve the Upper
East Side. Sadly, you missed the points
that affect this community, namely a neverending traffic nightmare foisted on us by
an uncaring, rich organization that indeed
has alternatives. MSKCC has 20 other
sites and presumably other “sleeper” sites
like the one under discussion. Surely, a
wiser location can be found.
Steve edelStein
440 E. 62nd St.
Letters have been edited for clarity,
style and brevity.
N EW S YO U LIV E B Y

DewIng THIngs BeTTer

Value Content Over Style
Heed those who see the big picture
By Bette Dewing
Hey, journalists Jeff Greenfield and
Mark Barabak, don’t call yourself “old
fogies” because you think that televised
debate audiences shouldn’t react verbally, and chuck that ageist label. It implies
that decorous behavior in an era of loud
mouths is somehow regressive.
This comment was made in reference
to Newt Gingrich benefiting from strong
audience reaction in one debate but not
in another where the audience was told
to hush up. Gingrich is a never-at-a-lossfor-words facile speaker, and we fallible
humans often value style over content.
Although I have countless ideas, words
often fail me, especially when speaking in public. My Norwegian-dominant
ancestry and being born left-handed likely account for my nonverbal right brain
dominance. Ah, but right-brainers are
very intuitive. They also see the big picture more clearly than left-brainers—and
don’t we need that!

Well, I surely see the big picture on
safety. Although my traffic safety “trailblazing” was officially recognized in
2006 by Upper East Side federal, state
and city elected officials, I’m never
consulted. Nope, the bicycling group
Transportation Alternatives is the chief
adviser for the city, even on planning
safe streets for seniors.
No matter that TA members don’t
know the elder experience or worry that
bicyclists’ strong aversion to the laws of
the road is what scares these vulnerable
walkers the most. And why isn’t the most
deadly traffic crime, motorists’ failing to
yield when turning into a crosswalk, a TA
priority? And if it’s true, why doesn’t TA
protest how the Daily News, with its new
British editor, seems to be slighting local
traffic tragedy news.
Ah, but I don’t have a big mouth, charisma or chutzpah. And my anti-ageism
work hasn’t yet reduced the bias against
my being old. Anyway, my generation

was taught that hogging the talk was selfish and boorish. Now it’s de rigeur if you
want your ideas to be heeded—or even
heard!
But please, you who agree with me,
never call yourselves “old fogies” or “oldfashioned,” but rather recount
how countless civil, commonsense and democratic ways
of life were tossed out with
the bathwater of ill-advised
change—mostly by those without big-picture vision.
Remember my inaugural
column’s quote from Ogden
Nash’s New York magazine
piece: “Progress was all right once, but
in my lifetime, too much seems headed
in the wrong direction. I think it started
in Kitty Hawk when two Wrights made a
wrong.”
Consider how that “wrong” sure did
uproot us and ripped up the train tracks
that safely connected every city and

town. Traffic tragedies soared as private
wheels became the land travel norm. So
here’s to ordering our leaders to lower
the speed limit pronto and giving all-out
support for the infinitely safer and more
democratic mass transit.
And while I mostly assail terrorist wheeling, kamikaze walking
has got to go; thus this respectful
reproach to Lorraine Duffy Merkl:
Your last column told how
happy you were that your favorite wallet was eventually returned
(albeit without any money) after
it had slipped from your purse as
you crossed a busy intersection
wearing earphones. Dear Ms. Merkl, you
have a mother, a daughter and a husband
who need you. You also influence readers. The next time you go walking, unplug
those ears. Need music? Then whistle or
sing, and join my safe traveling brigade!
dewingbetter@aol.com.

IronIc Hopes

Sound Heart but Giant Headaches about the Super Bowl
Fingers crossed Big Blue will repeat Patriot win
By Josh Rogers
My head says the Giants won’t win
the Super Bowl this Sunday. It’s not that
I’m one of those doom and gloom Giants
fans, although admittedly I was raised
by one. No matter how bleak things look
at the beginning of the season, I usually
go in with the attitude of “Hey, if things
break right this year, we could win it
all.”
It didn’t start that way. The Giants
were terrible my first few years watching football. To me, they were the team
to root for at the beginning of the season, before teams like Dallas and
Pittsburgh marched through the playoffs. I don’t ever remember thinking—or
even hoping—the Giants would make
the postseason.
That all changed after Lawrence
Taylor came to the Giants and they started making the playoffs somewhat regularly. For the team’s past Super Bowls,
my head and heart said they could win
each time.
O u r To w n NY. c o m

This year, it feels like a win so soon
after the Giants shocked everyone and
denied the Patriots’ bid for perfection
is asking too much. Of course the Pats
would play hard, regardless of their
opponent. Yes, they’re not as seemingly
invincible as they were four
years ago, and yes, they have
had a lot of turnover since
then.
But when you get a win
as sweet as Super Bowl XLII,
human nature says you can’t
help but expect some payback—at least, my human
nature does. I understand that
there are people out there who always
expect to be on top and are almost never
disappointed. I’m an optimist: I think you
can get more good than bad, but there
have to be some limits.
Beating the Patriots again may be over
the line.
The 2008 game was not only the most
satisfying one to me and undoubtedly

most other Giant fans Fox Sports has just
ranked that game as the greatest of all 45
Super Bowls.
After a frustrating 2007 season, the
Giants barely limped into the playoffs
with no reason to think they could make
the big game, let alone beat a team
they had just lost to, a team with
a perfect record that appeared to
be about to make history. But Eli
Manning outplayed Tom Brady,
escaped that rush at the end and
heaved that ball that David Tyree
pinned to his helmet to set up the
winning touchdown.
If they win this time, Eli would
finally get his due as being as good or
better than any other quarterback playing now. After a career spent underrated, he’d probably spend the rest of it
getting as much or more credit than he
deserved.
But then there’s that damned and
beloved heart talking again.
It’ll do what it can. It’ll make sure my

body wears no Giants paraphernalia on
game day because—to state the obvious—that would bring bad luck.
Such subtlety is lost on my 2-year-old
son, who, like you, will be unlikely to even
understand it when he’s an adult. He’ll do
what he did for last week’s championship game. He’ll wear his Giants pajamas
the night before, and while the game is
presumably far from decided, he’ll wear
them again and hopefully Daddy will be
happy in the morning.
We’re doing what we can, including
writing this column.
If I thought there were strong arguments suggesting the Giants were very
likely to win, I would certainly not write
them down. That’d be a jinx. Saying I
think they’ll lose might work as a reverse
jinx.
It’s all I can do. Go Big Blue.
Josh Rogers, contributing editor at
Manhattan Media, is a lifelong New
Yorker. Follow him @JoshRogersNYC.
F ebruary 2, 2012